Quantum Scrambled Eggs – One Year Later
by Shark8
Summary: A year has passed since I began my strange journey living portions of other people's lives; so much has changed and so often that change seems the only constant – besides the little problem of turning into a girl when getting wet – I've been a hero, villain, demon, saint, king, pirate, but now… now I'm a sidekick: Wally West, Kid Flash.
1. Chapter 1

**Quantum Scrambled Eggs – One Year Later**

* * *

Dedication: To my friend Shroud, who is a good guy to talk comics with; Peter David, for his writing on the [first] Young Justice comic-book; and Zod who is a good, if somewhat angry, cat.

Disclaimer: I don't actually own the characters herein, except Joey… but that's only because he's a self-insert. Oh, and a lot of the events are taken from their respective shows, except for the ones that aren't.

Apologies: I'm sorry that there's a break between QSE and here, two important things happen in between arc 2 and here: 1) Joey leaps into Ranma and attains the Jusenkyo-curse (which follows him); and 2) Joey regains [most of] the memories lost by leaping rather suddenly, hence the shift from referring to the character to referring to 'Joey' in internal-thought and descriptions.

I actually had the arc after Sliders virtually done, the Ranma ½ Arc… and my computer hard-drive crashed. But it's ok! I'm a computer scientist, so I had a backup, on an SD card… which I lost. [Arg!]

Thanks for understanding, and I hope you find this romp enjoyable.

* * *

[04 Jul 10 – Unknown Time]

"Oh crap!" Joey exclaimed, seeing a heavyset door closing right in front of him as he was running.

He tried to stop, but there wasn't enough time, or space, to keep himself from slamming into the now-sealed metal bulkhead. With a wince inducing ***wham*** the efforts became a moot point, and the world flipped about for a few moments before Joey landed on his back slightly dazed and staring at the ceiling.

"We're cut off from the street." someone in a white body-suit growled as he half-marched/half-stalked past, closely followed by two others running behind him.

The one in the body-suit and one of the two following him jammed their hands into the door's seams and tried to force it open. That was some serious strength right there, Joey noted as he picked himself up off the floor.

The last of the trio was wearing a mask, his face illuminated by the glow of light from a holographic projected screen coming from his glove… and he was wearing a cape, black on the outside gold on the inside, along with the red tunic, multi-pouched belt, and black pants. So odd, so tip-of-the-brain familiar that 'déjà vu' was an understatement.

"Can't hack this fast enough." The oddly familiar one said, starting into a run down a side corridor.

At the cue, the other two abandoned trying to force the door and followed suit running past Joey, as they did he took further note. The first was a male, brown-skinned, lean-build wearing a sleeveless red shirt which exposed thick winding tattoos about his arms. The one in the white body-suit had an eye-catching diamond circumscribing an 'S', both red, prominently on the chest, black hair, and a scowl that looked fairly permanent.

Joey blinked as something came to mind: Superman. Though that wasn't any Superman costume he'd ever seen… and Superman would easily be able to get through that bulkhead: as a combination of heat-vision, to weaken the metal, and super-strength would provide that. Joey dismissed the absurd idea that the young scowling man was Superman; probably just a fanboy or something… though that pulling-at-the-door thing was a very impressive display of strength.

'Oh crap! I'm going to be left behind.' Joey thought as he started into a run, overshooting the doorway in an instant… though the whole experience was odd because everything seemed to blur past at insane speed, and yet he could see and think about what he was doing. Reversing direction, almost falling, and mostly scrambling Joey made it to the door and through it just in time to face up against a wall of gray creatures with red eyes… and teeth, though those were white, not red.

The creatures were apparently being led by a man in a golden helmet wearing, it was hard to tell in this poor light, black body-armor. There was a small one of the gray creatures perched on his shoulder and for a minute Joey was tempted to make a lame "Polly want a cracker?"joke.

There was a pounding down the hall, to the side of the living wall and, as Joey turned to see what it was, the world again turned funny, slowing down but not in the way Joey was used to where the body was still bound to that slow time. There were several of the big gray creatures pounding down the hallway closing them off, accompanied by some of the more man-sized creatures. There were obviously different types of these creatures, ranging from something that looked like a gorilla-elephant to the small monkey-frog-imp things. And then the world dimmed to black, as if there was a wet blanket smothering consciousness.

And then the blanket was being lifted. Was it a full loss of consciousness? How much time had passed? What had happened in that time? The thoughts were disturbing, but interrupted by a voice, saying something profound, important, and profoundly important.

"I choose freedom." the voice said with a stubborn determination.

A heartbeat or two passed as Joey pulled himself off the ground again. Some small part of his brain laughingly bet that he was going to find himself on the floor more often than he'd like in this body.

The man in body-armor muttered something, and one of the three asked "Guardian?"

"Go. I'll take care of Desmond." Guardian, the man in body-armor, replied.

"I think not." Came a voice from behind the wall of gray flesh, which began parting as soon as the first word was uttered, and a man in a lab-coat strode down the hallway. "Project blockbuster will give me the power to restore order to Cadmus."

The scientist produced a test-tube of glowing neon-blue liquid and drank it, instantly doubling over in pain. 'Which is unsurprising,' Joey thought, 'it never pays to drink test-tubes full of glowing liquid.'

Then, just as suddenly, the lab-coat and other clothing burst as he suddenly grew bulky muscles… which kept growing until it burst his skin as well, leaving a tattered cowl and strips of skin flapping, revealing a giant blue-grey muscle-monster underneath.

"I am unsurprised." Joey said dryly, instants before the former-scientist stood up and bellowed.

"Everyone, back!" Guardian said, placing himself between them and the monster before starting in on a charge… which ended in a nice back-hand from the monster.

White-suit immediately leapt into action trading a few blows before being swatted back; a minor setback, apparently, as he leapt into the air to give the monster a few more hits.

The monster, roared again and leapt into the air as well, intercepting the young man in white, and kept on going, ignoring insignificant things like ceilings.

"That's one way to bust through the ceiling." The one in the cape observed , pulling something out of his belt, aiming it at the hole, and firing a rope up through the hole.

"Come, we should help him." Red-tunic said, as he leapt out the hole, an impressive feat normally, but not uncommon back in Nerima where martial-artists would hop along rooftops as a shortcut and keep private property damages down… not that they were very successful on that last point.

Joey tried to match the jump, he'd done it before after all, and failed miserably as his hands came within maybe six-feet of the hole as he hit the wall.

"K.F., what's going on?" The cape-wearing one asked, pausing in his assent.

"Oh, nothing, just trying to jump out a hole that's out of my reach." Joey replied, trying to spin it as a joke and sound nonchalant at the same time.

"Ah, not enough space." The cape-wearing boy replied, descending slightly, "Ok, grab my belt."

'You know, it'd be nice to get their names… not have to refer to them as "white body-suit", "red-tunic", and "cape-boy"' thought Joey as he made the ascent, 'Of course, it'd also be nice to know my own name on this world. What was it he called me? K.F. maybe that's Kent Fox, or Kyle Faust, or Klaude Firefistedhamson… although that last one might be a bit improbable.'

The two reached the top just in time to see the first two fly in a wide, lazy arc across the room, which appeared to be a ground-level lobby of some sort. It may have been a nice office building or something similar some time before; as it was now, a smell of smoke permeated the air and the carpet squished soggily underfoot.

Joey ran over to help them up, time starting to blur again before fading back to normal just in time to help the white-suited one up. Whatever this was he was getting used to it.

"Do we have a plan?" Joey asked, just as the monster roared.

"Hit him." White-suit said, regaining his feet, "Hard."

Joey resisted an urge to sigh; the answer was akin to someone saying 'food' in response to the question 'what would you like to eat?' The metaphor probably popped into his head so easily because he _was_ getting a little hungry.

In any case, the plan needed something a little more complex than head-on attack; as the previous battering had shown.

"Ok, then I'll provide a distraction." Joey said, zooming in a wide arc across the room to the side, and slightly behind, the creature. Squatting down on his haunches, Joey put his hands to his shoulders and flapped his arms like wings, as any startled waterfowl would do, and yelled "Wack! Wack! Wack!"

• • • • • • • • • • •

"Wait, what…" Robin said, blinking in surprise at Kid Flash's antics, "is he doing?"

"Providing a distraction." Aqualad answered quietly before launching himself into motion at the blockbuster-monster as its attention was drawn to the noisy kid in bright yellow.

Superboy followed suit and launched himself into a powerful jump-boosted flying-punch that hit more or less the same time as Aqualad's blow came down.

Robin pulled out a pair of his exploding baterangs, waiting a moment until a good opening presented itself and let them fly… but the blockbuster-monster saw them coming and batted them away. Still observing though, Robin noticed that the sharpened edges had done nothing to the monster's thick hide, even though the angle he intercepted the baterangs with should have cut quite nicely. It was quickly becoming obvious that another tactic would be needed; but what?

At that point Aqualad had drawn his weapons, water-bearers, and formed them into maces and was starting to take turns with Superboy, alternately striking the monster and dodging past to avoid a counter-blow.

Despite the beating it was taking the monster wasn't even phased or showing any sign of weariness, as evidenced by the loud roar it gave off and the subsequent downward-smash catching Superboy head-on and raised his leg to place a follow-up stomp.

That's when Robin saw Kid Flash blur into action again, intent on scooping the dazed Superboy out of the danger. Superboy might be tough, but he wasn't a duplicate of Superman as his lack of flight showed.

The monster then showed some extreme coordination, speed, and – for a monster that size – manual dexterity by plucking Kid Flash from his path to save Superboy and tossing him, forcefully, into Aqualad. The pair went sailing into one of the lobby's support beams knocking the breath from Aqualad, first from this impact on the pillar, and second from Kid Flash impacting him.

'That's it!' Robin thought to himself, realizing what they could do to end the fight: bring the house down on it. 'Well, I hope it works; but if it doesn't, it'll at least buy us time to regroup and assess the situation.'

"K.F., Get over here!" Robin called, only to have his friend appear by his side an instant later.

"What is it?"Kid Flash said, sliding to a halt and almost running into Robin on the wet carpet.

"We're going to bring the building down on this guy." Robin said, "I need you to distract him while we place charges to knock the supports out… try to get him out to the center of the room. Got it?"

"Got it." Joey said, easing into his super-speed; it was getting easier, but getting fine-control was obviously going to take some practice.

He jumped up as he ran past the monster, punching him in the face and then making a grab at the nose of that tattered skin still draped over the monster's head. Stopping, and looking down, he saw that th whole thing had come away.

"I got your nose!" Joey shouted at the monster, "literally… and your face! (That's kinda gross.)"

The monster tossed Superboy aside and rushed at Kid Flash, who used his super-speed to circumvent him and get to the opposite side of the room

"Oh noes! Your nose is over here!" Joey yelled waiving the tattered remnants of face above his head.

This time Joey ran at normal speeds to meet the monster, dipping into super speed to dodge and returning to normal speeds to punch, hit, or otherwise annoy the monster. (It sure wasn't going to do anything in the way of damage to something that had just shrugged off Superboy and Aqualad's combined attacks.)

There was no way to measure time in the dodge-tweak-dodge-dance that Joey fell into, just a sense of timing that would have done his martial-arts _sensei_ – and the closest thing to a father he'd found since he'd began this strange inter-dimensional jaunt – proud. The best way to block a blow was simply not to be there. The pattern was simple: Strike, evade; strike, evade. Simple.

"Ok, K.F., that's enough!" Robin yelled, finished setting up the explosives.

Joey broke out of his trance-like state just in time to alter his course to avoid being hit by an incoming Superboy, who struck the monster hard enough to take advantage of it overextending itself causing it to topple over; that was followed by Aqualad vaulting into a handspring off the prone monster, the instant before he landed there was a bright flash and a loud crack which coincided with a spasm wracking the monster's body.

"Let's go!" Robin yelled as he made his way out the lobby's door.

"Grab my hands!" Joey yelled just before he made the door, just before readying a dose of speed; Aqualad and Superboy did so, probably because of the assertiveness more than anything else, while a quick look showed Robin had already pulled out his grapnel which was pulling him away even as he thumbed the detonation switch. Joey grabbed the hands as hard as he could and pushed himself to go _fast_…

An instant later the concessive blast was felt through the ground, followed immediately by the impacts of the building imploding. That last bit of distance was good thing as a few chunks of debris fell only a dozen feet away from where they half-skidded/half-tumbled to a stop.

The group looked at the rubble of the building, several stories had collapsed onto the creature inside but it was unknown if the crushing weight would have killed it, or incapacitated it, or if it would eventually tear itself free and rampage again. Each of the loose team surveyed the rubble in the moonlight, looking for signs of movement.

After a few moments Joey looked at his companions and noticed Superboy staring, slack-jawed at something. He turned in the same direction to see what it was as he asked, "What is it?"

"The moon…" Superboy replied, obviously awed by the sight.

A human figure occulted the moon for an instant, cape flapping to the side.

"And Superman." Superboy finished, awe and respect mingling on a high plateau in his voice.

Then several other figures were revealed, blocking out the star-light surrounding the moon. An entire group of people dropping from the sky along with Superman; all of them alighting on the rubble of the building. An interesting tactic, as it projected both authority and superiority, by the whole Justice league… except for one, in a red suit which looked more black in the low light, who came quickly running from some faraway point and stopped at ground level off to the side but still part of the group.

Superman, at the forefront, looked down at the four for several minutes. Joey got the feeling that each of them felt like he was the particular focus of his gaze; given how each shifted in their stances… even himself.

"You have some explaining to do." Superman said, in a calm but strong voice.

"Start talking." Said Batman, who seemed to suddenly _be_ there. Joey hadn't ever noticed him, and he was standing just a few paces away from Superman.

So, they did; well the rest of the team did. Joey kept his mouth shut and listened to the story to catch himself up on how he'd gotten to be in the whole predicament. It all came out: how they'd gone to help with the fire at Cadmus, and then investigated and found the underground portions of the facility. How they then found Superboy, Superman's clone, and the Guardian, and the block-buster monster who was still under the rubble.

After the debriefing the justice League broke into groups handling different things. Green Lanterns dug the monster out of the rubble and carted him away with a few of the Leaguers accompanying them, though whether for security or just company was unclear. Superman, Batman, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman all clustered together, presumably to discuss the fate of Robin and the rest of the sidekicks.

"Cadmus will be investigated; all 52 levels. " Batman said, as he approached the team, Flash and Aqua-man taking up wing-man positions, "but let's make one thing clear…"

"You should have called." Flash interrupted, crossing his arms over his chest.

"End results aside," Batman turned his head and gave him a glare, before returning his attention to the sidekicks, "we are _not_ happy. You hacked Justice League systems, disobeyed direct orders, and endangered lives. You will not be doing this again."

A few moments passed before Aqualad stepped forward, "I am sorry; we will."

"Stand down, Aqualad." Aquaman commanded, obviously disturbed at the lack of deference shown to Batman.

"Apologies, my king, but no." Aqualad replied, "We did good work here tonight; the work you trained us to do. Together, on our own, we forged something powerful and… important."

"If this is about your treatment at the hall," Flash cut in, "the three of you"

"Four." Joey held up a hand to indicate the number.

"Batman, we're ready to use what you taught us, or why teach us at all?" Robin broke in, taking up the appeal.

"It's simple: get onboard or get out of our way!" Superboy exclaimed angrily, "Why should we listen to them anyway?"

"Because they are our legitimate authorities…" Joey broke in, this could very easily go the wrong way, "We didn't come here to be insubordinate, but to show initiative. Like Robin said: we apprentice, not to stay apprentices but to become like our masters… Don't you get it: we wanted to make you proud."

Barman stared at Joey for a moment, eyes narrowing as if to see through him… It was an uncomfortable feeling, did he have bat-ray vision or something? … or is that just another name for sonar?

"Right." And with that Batman turned away.

That was a relief for Joey, he realized as he started breathing again, but he also noticed something like a smile on the Flash's face which was mirrored by Aquaman's pronouncement of "Well spoken lad." as he laid an encouraging hand on Joey's shoulder.

A few minutes later Joey found himself with the rest of the team, wondering what was going to happen. Joey was rather uncomfortable with the whole situation; he didn't _fit_ here. 'Heh! Like I really fit anywhere.' But he was right, this was a world of not just heros, but super-heroes…

"Guys, we do have a couple of problems." Joey Said.

"What problems?" Aqualad asked, wondering what was on Kid Flash's mind.

"Well, the two that I see are these…" Joey pointed at Superboy, "First one, where's he staying? He can't stay out here."

"And the second?" Aqualad prompted.

Joey found himself mentally sweating as his mind raced, 'I can't keep things completely secret, not with my bumbling with trying to learn these 'new' powers, trying to discover this guy's life, and live it, on the fly… especially since I'm bound to have two to pick up: the super-hero and the 'secret-identity.' How much do I dare tell them? How much not-telling would hurt their trust in this K.F. guy?' Joey imagined that conversation would not go well no matter how well-hidden the line "I'm an inter-dimensional spook, possessing your comrade, but don't worry I'm non-hostile! Oh, by-the-by, I also turn into a girl when doused with cold water." happened to be… he paused the mental image for a moment before adding a mental "Tee-hee!"

"Well the other is, we've just been through several psychic attacks, put to sleep psychically, and 'podded' for some length of time…"

"It was eighteen minutes." Robin said, breaking in, "I checked the time when we were released."

Joey hoped they'd buy the bogus explanation for his future eccentricities. "Are we sure that they didn't screw with our heads?"

"He has a point." Robin said, "But wouldn't the League have screened us?"

"Maybe, or maybe it just didn't cross their minds," Aqualad said, then turned to address Kid Flash, "If it troubles you we could ask someone like Martian Manhanter for assistance."

"No! How would that look?"Joey began protesting, "First off we say 'we're trained enough to handle things,' followed by 'oh, can you look in our heads because we screwed up and got caught?' Don't you think that would undo everything we just did here? That and I don't want Batman staring at me like that again."

"In any case, we still need to decide where Superboy will be staying." Aqualad said, "My residence is… unsuitable for him."

"Like I said before, the Bat-cave's crowded enough." Robin replied.

"So, my place then?" Joey half-asked, "I hope the folks won't mind."


	2. Chapter 2

[05 Jul 10 – 0511R]

The West residence stood right there in front of them, Superboy and Joey. An ID found in the wallet had, once again, provided invaluable information: name, home address, birthday, and that it was a learner's permit. All excellent information, with the last item indicating that the age of young Mr. Wally West was 15 or 16.

Despite planning on the way over, Joey was a bit apprehensive about this first-meeting with his new family. They, of all people, would be the most likely to notice something different with Wally. There were so many unknowns, did they know about Wally's powers? or had he thought to keep it a secret from them to protect them like Peter Parker's decision to become Spider-Man? And those were the big things, there were thousands of little things that were unknown: likes, dislikes, attitudes, religious beliefs, allergies.

Well, either way, there was only one thing to do: see if he could fit in, perhaps not perfectly, bit _enough_. With that Joey reached out to the doorknob, only to find the door locked.

'Figures.' Joey thought sarcastically to himself as he pulled Wally's keys out of his pocket, 'I psych myself out, screw up my courage, and get stopped…'

'Well, it did give me enough time to calm down a bit.' Joey thought as he opened the door, and gestured for Superboy, "Come on in."

"Hey Wally, pull an all nighter?" came a voice belonging to a man sitting at the living-room table and was setting his newspaper down. He was slightly heavyset, had a shock of dark-brown hair, a moustache a walrus would envy, and a fairly deep voice.

"Yeah." Joey replied.

"Oh, who's this?" Asked a lady, just stepping out of the kitchen.

"I'm Wally West, perhaps you've heard of me." Joey replied with a grin, hoping the joke would be appropriate, earning a glare which said something like 'I'm your mom, and I know you know what I mean, young man.' though the slight twitch of a smile showed that she was not wholly unamused.

"Uh, well, see, that's a bit of a story…" Joey trailed off, unsure of how much of the story to tell, or just how much the family already knew.

"Involving your uncle Barry taking you to meet with the justice League yesterday?" The man, presumably Wally's father, asked.

"Yeah." Joey answered, they obviously knew about his meeting the Justice League, which meant that they probably knew that he was Kid Flash… but who was 'uncle Barry'?

"Well, I suppose the quick version would be that Robin, Aqualad, and I went to help with a fire at this place called Cadmus, when we got there we saw something strange and investigated it, only to wind up finding Superman's clone: Superboy." Joey pointed over to the Superboy, "And that's him. He doesn't have anyplace to stay so we thought that he'd be best-off staying at Wally's house."

"'Wally's house?'" The dad replied, raising a confused eyebrow in response.

Joey internally grimaced, "My house? I don't know… sometimes having alternate identities makes the verbiage a bit wonky."

Wally's father shook his head, "just as long as you don't start calling your mother and I 'Wally's Parents', ok?"

"Yeah, but… well, is it ok if Superboy stays with us?" Joey asked, "He really doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"Of course it is, honey. You lead a strange life." Wally's mom said as she messed his hair, "but we're mostly used to it."

Joey couldn't contain a yawn.

"Why don't you two go upstairs and get some sleep?"

Joey tried to say 'good idea' through his next yawn and failed miserably. The tired teen trudged up the stairs and promptly opened the wrong door. The next two were wrong as well, but did yield some spare bedding from a closet; the next try revealed what was obviously Wally West's room.

"Well, here we are." Joey said to Superboy, who had followed him.

"It took you long enough." Superboy replied.

"Well, I had to get the spare bedding, right?" Joey said, brushing off the implication that he'd been acting odd fore not going there directly, and continuing as he laid the extra bedding out on the floor, "Anyway, you're the guest so you take the bed."

• • • • • • • • • • •

[05 Jul 10 – 0841R]

Three and a half hours of sleep later, Joey opened his eyes and was greeted to an empty room. There was an instant where he felt a flash of concern, but then thought to himself 'He's Superman's clone, it's not likely he'll get hurt…'

Joey did a quick recon around Wally's room, looking for clues to who he was. There wasn't a diary, that would have been too helpful; though there was a scrapbook full of newspaper articles on the Flash and Kid Flash. Giving those a once-over, two things became apparent; first, that the older super-hero and Wally were close, in their working relationship, if nothing else; second, that "K.F." was short for Kid Flash.

Further reconnaissance was interrupted by a loud and forceful growl from Wally's belly. It was seriously protesting its empty state.

"Okay, okay! I'll get you something to eat." Joey said, as he looked around for a clean shirt. 'Ah, closet.'

A second later he was in the kitchen loading up a plate with food that was left on the stove in a cast-iron pan with a lid covering it. The food was not hot, having been sitting out for an hour or so, but it wasn't too tepid… not that he would have minded at this particular moment.

Joey took his feast back to the kitchen table where, just as he was about to break his fast, he noticed Superboy sitting there.

"Hello." Joey said, fork paused in transit to mouth, "are you hungry? Can I get you something?"

"No." Superboy replied, "I already ate. Your mother,"

"You ate my mother!" Joey interrupted, grinning inwardly; sometimes things just fell right to your lap.

"No, I didn't… but she did say to amuse myself and make myself at home."

"Ah… and?"

"I'm a 16-week old clone, psychically force-fed information, who prior to yesterday had never even seen the moon."

"Oh, good point." Joey said, finishing his meal, super-speed _did_ make for quick meals He glanced down at the empty plate and thought of the remaining food in the pan… there was enough for seconds. "Excuse me a second."

"Ok, I'm back." Joey said, sitting down with a now-full plate. "I guess what you're trying to say is that you don't know how to have fun, right?"

"Yes." Superboy stated plainly, though there may have been some slight glowering there.

"Ah, I see." Joey replied, just finishing his meal; he'd have to tell 'mom' thank you because it was pretty good… but Superboy's predicament was now at the top of his mind, right after finding out more about Wally West, and the rest of his super-hero friends, and… wait, no, he needed to focus on one thing at a time. Joey idly wondered if Kid Flash's super-speed was impacting his thought processes. Maybe. He could think about that later, Superboy's problem, right.

"Well, you and I are in a bit of a bind then," Joey said, "We're at the age, well at least physiologically, where we're in transition from childhood to adulthood; children play, adults have 'hobbies.'"

"I see." Superboy said in an almost entirely emotionless tone… a dismissal of the entire subject, obviously.

A few awkward moments passed.

"So, um…" Joey said, breaking the silence, "make yourself at home and try to amuse yourself."

Superboy did glower at him then – with an audible growl, too – and Joey tried to keep from laughing, first because it would ruin the joke, and second because it generally isn't a good idea to [overly] antagonize super-strong, super-tough folks too much.

• • • • • • • • • • •

[04 Jul 10 – 1537R]

Later that afternoon the boys were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. Though it was a welcome interruption, at least on Joey's part, as he'd finished reading every book in the house ten minutes ago… even the Danielle Steel novels that in the library/study that he sincerely hoped were his mother's and not his father's… because that would be, you know, weird.

"I got it!" Joey yelled, pouring on the speed… and hitting the wall as he tried to go down the stairs, which were at a right angle to the main hallway. He'd misjudged it, again…

'Dang, I've really got to work on that.' Joey thought as he started his tumble down the stairs; his martial arts training kicked in… and as the world seemed to be paused, everything moving so slowly, he was thankful for the rough-and-tumble methodology of the _Anything Goes_ style and its mid-air/single-point-of-contact acrobatics.

A few moments later Joey rolled into a crouch at the base of the stairs and sped to the door, overshooting it by a half-foot and reaching the doorknob just as the bell rang again.

"Having a slow day, Wally?" said the kid standing at the door.

Black hair, black eye-hugging glasses, close in age to Wally; smallish frame, though well-toned, and moving with a martial-artist's grace… Joey had no idea who it was addressing him, though something was nigglingly familiar about him.

"Yeah, you could say that." Joey admitted as he stepped back to (unknowingly) admit the Boy Wonder into the home.

'Hopefully the omition of a first-name in the return won't go noticed.' Joey mused to himself. 'The parents didn't seem to notice anything amiss; or if they did they likely chalked it up to my "all-nighter." They obviously know about Wally/Kid Flash, but does more extended family know? Friends, like maybe this guy?'

"I think we got it." The boy said with a smirk.

"Got what?" Joey looked back blankly.

"The team." the other boy said, smirk fading.

"The team?" Joey asked, still getting nothing in the way of context.

"Are you going to just repeat everything I say as a question?" the other responded.

"Yes?" Joey replied, tacking on a verbal question-mark more to get a reaction out of the other more than anything else. "I'm just kidding, but what makes you think that we've got the team?"

"Two things. First: when I asked Batman " – Everything snapped into place, this was Robin – "about the idea he said to give him three days, and, second: he sent me out here to help you take care of Superboy while he is looking into out-of-the way locations, for an HQ I'm betting."

"So, that's three days that he has to make up his mind, why should doing research on it mean that he's already decided?" Joey asked, following up with, "And couldn't he be looking into those locations for some other case he's working?"

"Look, he's Batman. He likes to be prepared for whatever he does before he does it."

"Okay." Joey was still unconvinced, but it shouldn't be a big deal either way, "So, what about Superboy?"

"I'm here." Superboy interjected as he entered the room.

"Good, `cause you need a whole new set of clothes." Robin said, pulling a couple of bills out of his pocket, "Five hundred dollars to get you a full wardrobe, toiletries, and everything else you need to start living a 'normal life.'"

"I have my solar-suit, what else do I need?" Superboy stated, or protested, it was hard to tell because of the lack of emotion.

"Yeah, for some definition of 'normal.'" Joey remarked dryly. "But what happens if it gets torn up in a fight? It's surprising that it lasted through that Blockbuster fight we had, given the pounding you were taking."

"Fine, let's go." Superboy scowled.

A while later the three found themselves in the Central City Mall, courtesy of the public transit system's bus line, visiting various clothing and apparel shops. Waiting for Superboy to make a decision on which shirt he liked more: the black one with the red S inscribed within the diamond, or the red one with the black S inscribed within the diamond.

Robin and Joey were a bit bored, as they weren't actually getting anything. Though Joey had to admit that it was good to get out of the house for a while.

"At least he knows what he generally wants." Robin said conversationally.

"Yep." Joey replied, somewhat tersely. Without any real interest in the matter it seemed the best course of action.

"Wally, are you ok? You seem… different." Robin asked, concern touching both his face and voice.

"I'm doing ok… though something's been bugging me." Joey admitted, truthfully enough, but decided he'd best hedge his bets, "Remember those G-gnomes? And the 'download their memories, then delete the original'? If they had the ability to implant commands into the clones, then why couldn't they implant them into us?"

"This again?" Robin queried, it wasn't like his friend to dwell long on something, "What's wrong?"

"Well… I'm kinda missing some memories." Joey began honestly enough.

"Really? How much is gone?"

"That's a difficult question to answer." Joey lied, 'all of them' would have been accurate and easy, "I mean if you have a plain of tree-stumps and ask 'how much is gone' you can't give a good answer, because you don't know the heights of all the trees."

Joey continued: "Maybe when the G-gnome memory download was interrupted it fouled up my mental equivalent of the File Allocation Table." finishing with a shrug.

"I'm finished." Superboy announced, coming to stand with the other two.

Robin looked up at him, "Okay, who's hungry?"

"I am!" Joey said, excited at the prospect of food, "Are you paying?"

"You wish!" Robin said wryly, "with your apatite you'd eat me out of house and home if I picked up the check."

"You're only saying that because you live in a gingerbread house, aren't you?"

Robin laughed at that and Joey mentally relaxed. A good sign, it meant that the seriousness of earlier was likely defused now. Though… it was odd about how he was always hungry now, even more then when he simply had an active metabolism; it probably had to do with Kid Flash's powers, and that made sense because the energy expended had to come from _somewhere_.

The three ended up eating at a Vietnamese restaurant which, while not an all-you-can-eat place, was known for it's good food and large portions at a reasonable price. The most interesting thing there, Joey found, was the Chanh Muoi – a sort of salty lemonade which was surprisingly good.

After hitting on the waitress, and failing, Joey tried for his real goal: the recipe of the lemonade and was successful. It'd be different, and if his suspicions regarding speedster metabolism were correct it'd be good for replenishing electrolytes – the kinds that plants want – and stabilizing his blood-sugar level after exerting himself. The three young super heroes left the restaurant talking about what to do the following day.

"I want to go to a zoo." Superboy stated, somehow managing to be both bland and insistent at the same time.

"Ok." Joey replied, not particularly thrilled with the idea, but more indifferent than anything else, "Why do you want to go to the zoo?"

"To see all the animals." Superboy stated, then added "Just like seeing the moon, or Superman, I would like to see all these things I know about with my own eyes."

"Fair enough." Robin said, "How does one sound?"

"Fine with me." Joey shrugged, as the city bus pulled to a stop, pausing to let Superboy go first and turning when Robin fell out of his peripheral vision "You coming?"

"Nah, the zeta-transport's fairly close, I'll just walk." Robin said, waving as he turned and walked away.

After paying, Joey found his seat and watched the city slide by the bus's windows. 'The zoo?' He mentally shrugged, 'It's probably going to be pretty boring.'


	3. Chapter 3

[06 Jul 10 – 0621R]

In the twenty or so minutes since the sunrise the back yard of the West residence had undergone something of a transformation. The middle was mostly cleared out and near the fence there was now a 4x4 firmly planted with makeshift "pads" – a few 2x4s wrapped in rope and – tied in place. Off to the side was a new fire-pit.

Finished, for now, Joey began with a few basic stretches then started on a hundred [relatively] slow, weighted strikes with each limb, concentrating on the form and motion. It was a nice familiar exercise that he hadn't done in months, and he'd probably been getting rusty… and speaking of rust, he'd need to get himself a sword soon or _those_ skills would be degraded as well. 'Where am I going to get a good sword around here?'

Joey pushed aside the musings to concentrate on several kata he'd picked up, since Genma wasn't around to spar with him in the mornings this was the best he was likely to do training-wise, as there weren't any martial-artists on the prospective team… well, Robin might be one, he'd have to ask sometime.

After finishing the katas, Joey started a fire and in a few minutes had a nice little blaze going. After setting a few plates to the side he pulled out a container of chestnuts and tossed them in the fire; it was time for the next portion of his new training regimen: _Amaguriken_ practice.

The training was simple, snatch them out of the fire an put them on the plates quickly enough not to get burnt. There was only one problem, Kid Flash's superpowers allowed him to do it _effortlessly_… not a speck of the way that it should feel. There had to be some challenge to it, otherwise it'd just be wasting time and energy.

"What are you doing?" a female voice shouted as a figure stormed out the back door.

'Oh, mom… think quick!' Joey almost panicked before saying, "Playing with fire!"

"No, actually I'm doing some speed-training…" Joey corrected himself as he tossed the chestnuts back into the fire and, just after they settled, snatched them out one a time onto the three plates, spelling out 'MOM' and offering a big grin "See?"

"Besides," Joey nodded to the right as he repeated the exercise, "I won't let it out of control; I've got a fire extinguisher right there."

"Fine. But if you burn yourself you're getting no sympathy from me; and don't burn the house down either. Oh, and breakfast is ready, by the way." she said as she walked back to the house, probably shaking her head at the 'dumb' idea of speed-training.

'Acting like you know what you're doing can keep you out of trouble more often than acting guilty.' he thought to himself 'Now, where was I… right, my brand-new super-peed is makes this training a moot point, as Wally's already at or past _Katchu Tenshin Amaguriken_ speed. I wonder if I can try not-using super-speed but still do the training…'

Ten minutes later Joey was cradling his slightly-tender, red hands. It had taken a while but now, after seventy-three variations, he had something that was very near a passable _Amaguriken_, the concentration was tiring in the same way and it involved a deliberation of movement like that used in slow-motion training.

His stomach rumbled, demanding food once again, as he put out the fire and headed inside for breakfast. The worries of training and keeping the rest of his skills unrusted could wait.

• • • • • • • • • • •

[06 Jul 10 – 1252R]

"Superboy, time to go!" Joey said as he zipped closed his backpack and raced to the door just after the third rap landed.

Opening the door there was, just as expected, Robin and, just as unexpected, Aqualad.

"Hey guys. I'm ready to go." Joey said, then held up the backpack, then grinned as he continued "I got snacks covered!"

"Even enough for Kaldur?" Robin asked, pointing a thumb at Aqualad.

"Yes." Superboy replied, striding through the doorway

"It just means I won't get thirds." Joey said forcing disappointment into his voice as he swung the backpack into place, "Well, let's go. I'm certainly prepared to be bored outta my skull."

"You seem awful cheerful for someone about to be 'bored outta his skull'." Robin teased.

"You got it, tiger!" Joey said, grinning, "Ee-ee, ooh-ooh, let's get on with this monkey business!"

"I suppose there's no chance that I can talk you out of embarrassing me in public." Robin said shaking head in resignation.

"Nope." Joey said grinning.

[06 Jul 10 – 1338R]

Thirty-six minutes later the bus pulled up to the zoo's bus-stop and the four boys disembarked into a whole new world. A world of cages and environments and exhibits and the exotic animals within them… one of those exhibits was the zoo's star attraction: an adolescent albino gorilla.

There were elephants, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses, giraffes, hyenas, oryxes, foxes, lions, tigers, and frogs and other things too. All things that Superboy and Kaldur took in with a very reserved manner… but still had that interest and fascination underneath that most little children seem to possess. When Joey asked Kaldur what he found so interesting he explained that he'd not seen such diverse samplings of "surface world" animals.

"I guess so. " Joey shrugged, he hadn't expected that this would have been Kaldur's first time seeing these animals. But then again, he was Aqualad, there was no particular reason that he _should_ have.

The second-to last exhibit on their scheduled route was the arctic creatures: penguins and walruses and polar bears and the like. The group had decided to make what amounted to a sort of figure-eight, leaving the 'star exhibit' of albino gorilla (and the other monkeys, apes, and assorted simians) for last.

The group was about to make their way to the aforementioned polar exhibit when the zoo's sprinkler-system came on and, due to the sprinkler-heads being damaged, almost soaked the four boys.

"Gyah!" Joey jumped back – his mind racing to all the times he'd been doused at inopportune moments, changing from male to female (or sometimes vice versa) and getting into troublesome and complex situations – aware that the others were about to catch him staring at the water… he needed an excuse, "Um, it startled me…"

"Obviously." Kaldur replied. The 'surface dwellers' had many strange customs and ideas, but in all his time here there was one that he wouldn't ever understand: the aversion to getting wet. It was, after all, only water.

"Scared of getting wet?" Robin asked with a grin and giving his friend a playful shove towards the sprinkler.

"Pants-wetting terror." Joey dead-panned his agreement, throwing just a bit of sarcasm on for flavor. "Honestly guys, have you even tried running with wet socks? The only thing more uncomfortable is wearing wet underwear."

"I truly do not understand why you would find wet underwear uncomfortable." Kaldur offered.

There are silences, and there are awkward silences… and there are silences that become more awkward; the silence that descended on the group was all three.

"So… polar bears?" Robin offered, walking toward the exhibit.

The other boys quickly assented and followed along, and after a little while Aqualad was telling Superboy about the walruses he'd seen on a recent adventure with Aquaman and some interesting details about them.

Joey was rather bored at this point, and glancing over at Robin saw the other looking off at nothing.

"Hey Robin," Joey said swinging off his back-pack, pulling out a couple of pencils, and sticking them under his upper-lip like tusks "I'm a walrus!"

"What?" Robin blinked in surprise.

Joey tried again, the pencils inhibiting his enunciation triggered a stray thought and he said the name 'Wally West' which sounded more or less like 'Walrus.' _That_, in turn, gave rise to a wonderful, horrible thought: a pun unbearable and terrible.

"I said 'I'm a Wallyrus.'" Joey said, putting the pencils away.

Robin said winced in mock pain, "That joke is physically painful."

"I know." Joey said, grinning in a manner that would have made the Joker proud.

[06 Jul 10 – 1521R]

"I love monkeys!" Superboy said with what was might have been the beginnings of joyful excitement as he chittered at them and generally found them to be amusing, entertaining, and engrossing as he played with and chittered back at them.

That was so… odd. It earned him a look from all his friends, whose faces showed various states of surprise. Fortunately though the universe didn't have time to break because at that moment there was a brief commotion of a few screams, an energy-weapon discharging multiple times, and the sudden cessation of the screams one-by-one.

It was rather obvious why people had started screaming, when one had their attention on the scene. A albino gorilla purposefully striding through the zoo would have been enough, but adding "wielding some sort of energy-gun"just intensified it that much more.

"It's Ultra-Humanite!" Robin said, pulling his utility-belt out of his jacket – or was it under his shirt? – and ducking behind the concealment of a landscape retaining-wall with Kid Flash and Aqualad.

Either way, Joey couldn't help noting it, "You brought your utility-belt to the zoo?"

"Never leave home without it! It was the first thing Batman taught me." Robin said, tossing in a little bit of depreciating humor, "And aren't you glad I did, Wallynoceros?"

"I'm a Wallyrus, not a Wallynoceros."Joey corrected him, unlimbering his backpack, "in any case, what's the plan?"

"We are going to stop him," Kaldur said with a quiet determination and confidence, "but why is he here?"

"Hostess fruit pies?" Joey said, offering lemon- and apple-flavored pies to his comrades, and devouring several himself.

Kaldur and Robin looked at the offered pies for a second before giving a disbelieving look to Joey.

"What? I'm going to need energy for the fight, right?" Joey tried explaining. He pulled out his goggles just before he noticed something. "Where's Superboy?"

There was the sound of the energy-weapon firing again and the group's collective hearts lurched.

Time froze. Well, not really, but for Joey it seemed like it had, moving with frustrating slowness. The odd sensation of seeing everything at once – what has been called _the zone_, the _zen moment_, when everything crystalizes around you – and still being able to move was the _joy-dream_ of a fighter, and this was the corresponding nightmare: seeing it all and being unable to change it.

It was in this manner that he saw the _Boy of Steel_ get hit with Ultra-Humanite's ray gun… the scene frozen in time. Ultra-Humanite made for a strange figure; he was a white gorilla, with an oddly misshapen head – like someone had said "you know what we need: one of those veiny bulging-headed Star Trek alien heads on a giant gorilla! Sweet dreams, kiddies!" and then made good on their threat– and then dressed him up in a combination Native American & Roman gladiator costume, because he was wearing something that couldn't rightly be called either 'loin-cloth' nor 'kilt' yet managed to insult both and was held in place by a spiked red leather harness. In his hand was a gun that looked like it could double on the set of a 50's era sci-fi flick, with all its tubes and chambers and odd contours, or a vacuum-cleaner, the energy bolt it emitted was a pale neon-blue and engulfed in a crackling umbra that, even with time standing still, seemed to shift, twist, and undulate in and out. _That_ bolt was what was striking the Superboy and causing him to start to melt – well it wasn't exactly _melting_, but that was the only word that fit – and ooze into the monkeys's cages.

Then things snapped back to normal.

"The plan's changed, it's payback." Aqualad said, while Robin fired his grapnel off to the side.

'Not much of an actual plan.' Joey thought as he pulled on his goggles and started running toward Ultra-Humanite, trying to get there in time to deflect his aim while still remaining unhit. Either the 'team' _really_ needed to work on it teamwork, or Joey was thrown into the middle of a well-experienced team and just lacked the knowledge of his comrades, Joey threw a kick, trying to force Ultra-Humanite to loose his aim and have to reacquire his target.

It was an unfortunate choice, as compared to trying to disturb the gun laterally, because the bolt that shot out came inches from clipping Robin.

The close call Robin caused Robin to swerve ever so slightly and, that in turn, caused him to catch the gorilla's eye and bring his non-firing hand up to deflect Robin's attack.

At this point Aqualad had rounded on Ultra-Humanite, he had to go to hand-to-hand because he had not brought his water-bearers, and let loose with a powerful swing. Ultra-Humanite, however, did not wait for it to connect but dropped down and kicked out a leg, grabbing Aqualad and swinging him up and over himself and, coincidentally, into kid Flash.

"He's quicker than I anticipated." Aqualad said as he extracted himself from the tangle.

"Yeah." Joey agreed, gasping for breath; the sudden impact had caught him off-guard too and the collision had knocked the wind out of him. He forced himself to breathe, "let's go."

Robin in the meantime swung right by Ultra-Humanite, placing something on his harness as he passed by.

An instant later there was the sharp snap-crackle of the high-voltage capacitor discharge and Ultra-Humanite jerked back uncontrollably. TASER technology, obviously.

Unfortunately the device was quickly drained, it couldn't have been more than a few seconds, enough time for the team to regroup, but they were fighting at a disadvantage: one member – a hard-hitter – down, and they weren't working together very well.

Apparently the Blockbuster fight was more of a fluke than anything else; Joey made a note to push for some team-based training with the others later, right now they had an ape to take out.

"I'll rush him and break to the right, " Joey said softly to Aqualad – whispering carried too far and, ironically, was easier for the ear to pick up – "you follow up on the left."

So Joey sped toward Ultra-Humanite, accelerating as best he could. The gorilla, however, had ridiculous reach and a natural solid bulk and could easily intercept the young speedster with a simple arm-swipe… and, being a genius, did so.

That move was precisely what Joey was hoping for. He grabbed the arm and used it to stabilize himself and convert most of his linear motion into angular momentum; swinging up into a kick to the gorilla's jaw.

As he tumbled out of the way, Joey saw Aqualad charging in with his water-bearers formed into maces, the "crack!" from the blow landing arriving just as Joey twisted back into a ready position.

"You impudent whelps!" the albino gorilla yelled, as he holstered his gun and unsheathed what appeared to be a plain metal rod and a yellow ethereal whip-like wisp appeared extending out of the end.

With a flick of his wrists the yellow energy-whip streaked out and hit Robin in the shoulder just as he let loose a barrage of baterangs. The Boy Wonder gave a yelp and collapsed from his perch the instant before the baterangs impacted the ground in front of Ultra-Humanite and gave the pop-hiss of gas-canisters being released.

The slight breeze blew the gas straight into the gorilla's face… and thanks to a sudden change of direction and gust into Joey's, too. The coughing wasn't the worst part of the tear gas, it was the burning – anywhere that was moist felt like it was on fire, like eyes – that and near-reflexive exhalation caused by inhaling it.

'_If a man can't breathe, a man can't fight; if a man can't see, a man can't fight; if a man can't stand, a man can't fight._' The voice of Genma Saotome echoed in Joey's mind, recapitulating one of his teachings.

So Joey 'ran' (it was more a quick walk) to a more open and unaffected area. There he consciously breathed both deeply and quickly, pushing himself to skirting the lightheadedness of hyperventilation in an effort to purge the tear-gas from his lungs. It took two seconds.

Then he saw Ultra-Humanite on his knees coughing curses, barely keeping Aqualad at bay with his whip his whip lashing about in a barely controlled manner. 'Kaldur should do well enough for me to check on Robin.'

"You ok?" Joey asked as he arrived, performing a quick visual-check.

"Yeah, just don't tell Batman about that." he said as he rubbed his shoulder, "It's like getting kicked by a mule and shocked at the same time."

There was another loud crack that resulted in Ultra-Humanite jerking backward a good pace and a half. The fading glow of the eel tattoos wreathing Aqualad's arms indicating what had happened: he'd generated an electric-field like an electric-eel in a replication of Robin's first ploy.

The break in Ultra-Humanite's defenses presented a great opportunity to separate him from his weapon. So Joey threw himself into motion and readied an _Amaguriken_… as soon as he got in range he let loose, punching at each of the fingers gripping the whip-generator in turn, like a psychotic high-speed game of bloody-knuckles, finishing off with a grab and twist toward the thumb.

As the fingers were forced to let go, the ape swung with his free arm and would have cold-clocked Joey if he hadn't already been starting to run away with his new 'prize' in hand. As it was, it merely knocked him off course and into the support-bars for one of the monkey cages.

There was a surreal moment as Joey gathered his feet underneath him, when he noticed an amorphous incarnadine and black blob that the monkeys were chittering at, poking, and otherwise molesting. 'How odd.' Joey thought, as he swung around into a battle-ready stance.

At the same time, Robin had drawn, and thrown, a baterang that hit Ultra-Humanite's hand just as he was ready to draw it. Aqualad was also pressing his attack, taking advantage of Ultra-Humanite being deprived of his weapons. This was better teamwork; not the best, but far more acceptable.

Joey joined Aqualad's attack and after a few moments the ape fell backward, his knee taken out from under him by a sweeping attack from Aqualad.

Robin stepped forward and produced a pair of handcuffs and a thin rope from his utility belt for Aqualad to and Joey to restrain Ultra-Humanite. After Aqualad finished cuffing his hands, the Joey used the rope to tie his arms akimbo – by drawing the rope across the ape's chest – to keep him from simply stepping over the cuffed wrists.

"K.F. watch him a moment." Robin said as he surveyed their prisoner.

"What? Why?" Joey asked.

"So, I can call Batman to come and get Ultra-Humanite,." Robin said, looking around at various items around the zoo's exhibit. "Then I'll try to hack the security system and wipe footage of our battle. Think you guys can find his weapon and see if you can reverse the effects?"

"I will try." Kaldur nodded and began looking for the strange gun.

When he found in he examined its controls throughly, in addition to the trigger was a numeric key-pad similar to those on ATMs, complete with the ok/enter and no/cancel buttons. Unfortunately the gun did not have such a an instructive user-interface and the purpose thereof was indeterminate.

"What are you trying to do with that?" Joey asked, gaze flickering between the gorilla and gun.

"I'm trying to determine if it might be used to reverse its effects." Aqualad replied.

"Ah, gotcha." Joey replied, thinking 'You should just threaten to shoot him: If it's temporary then we don't have anything to worry about. If it's permanent, then he'd be subject to the same fate inflected on the others.'

After a time spent trying to figure out the controls Joey noticed some movement from the corner of his eye and, turning his attention there, saw a person un-melt, regaining her form before his very eyes – the effect wasn't really like the effects used in _Deep Space Nine_, but nonetheless reminded him of the shape-shifter in some odd way.

"Hey, Aqualad!" Joey shouted while pointing, "it's not permanent, look."

Joey returned to watching the albino gorilla, who was struggling against the bonds again… it looked like he was trying to get to something on his harness.

"Hey, be still... it'll only be worse if you try to get away." Joey said, taking the opportunity to pat him on the shoulder gently a few times… between the last two pats his fingers flew to what he'd found some sort of embedded button with a now-exposed set of wires, a couple of hundred bends and the wires broke rendering the device useless.

"Oh, really? And how would you restrain me if I did escape?" The gorilla asked, as the speedster walked around to face him. "Your bag of equipment – the boy wonder – is gone."

"Simple," Joey replied with a grin, "I'd run to the hardware store and get a box of gorilla tape."

Ultra-Humanite groaned at that, "I see you've inherited your mentor's humor, a pity that… but I'm afraid I really must be going."

The gorilla looked surprised for a moment, pressed the button again and nothing happened. "What did you do!"

"Me?" The speedster asked, placing his hand to his chest and trying to both sound and look as innocent as possible, "What makes you think I did anything?"

The gorilla just glared at him.

After a while Robin returned, grinning the way he did when he pulled some sort of prank, hack, or other mischief involving technology, and accompanied by the Dark Knight and a few police officers.

Batman ensured that Ultra-Humanite wasn't hiding any more items and then directed the police, along with what looked to be something used for warehouse organization, to take the albino gorilla away.

"So, why do we call him Ultra-Humanite?" Joey asked, turning to Robin.

"Because that's his name." Robin replied.

"But he's a monkey." Joey argued.

"Well, true, but there is divergent evolution..." Robin tried to explain.

"But. He's. A. Monkey!" Joey interrupted.

"…You said that already." Robin said.

"I did. You didn't listen. I repeated. How can he be a _humanite_, when he's a freaking ape?" Joey countered.

"He wasn't originally, you know…" Robin

"Uh-huh." Joey replied, letting the dry sarcasm drip off the two syllables.

"Okay, what would you call him?" Robin asked.

Joey mentally cringed, he hadn't thought of any appropriate name, and the only 'evil monkey' name that came to mind was, well, ridiculous: "Mojo…Jojo."

Robin stared at Joey.

"Hey, you asked!" Joey exclaimed.

Robin continued to stare, obviously the training from Batman had rubbed off because this time it was pretty uncomfortable and demanded an answer or explanation.

Joey pointed at Kaldur: "Bubbles."

Then at Superboy: "Buttercup."

"Okay…" Robin said in a smug tone as he crossed his arms, "who's Blossom?"

"The title-character of a bad TV show." Joey replied.

"You win." Robin said as he sighed and shook his head slowly, "Come on, let's go see what's up with Superboy and Aqualad."

As the two teen super-heros approached they heard Superboy half-muttering/half-growling: "I hate monkeys."

* * *

**Author's Note:** I haven't gotten the question yet but the time-stamps I'm using are military format, the letters following the time indicate the time-zone; R is Central, and Q is Eastern, since those are, respectively, the time-zones where Wally lives and where the base is located those are the ones you'll see most often.

I'm always happy to see reviews, so comments and criticisms are welcome; it's how we get better, right?


	4. Chapter 4

[08 Jul 10 – 0540R]

Superboy stood on the back porch watching Joey run through his routine. It was interesting in a way, seeing martial arts practiced, just as seeing the animals he had encyclopedic knowledge was, but even so couldn't compare to the strength of being _the_ Superboy.

"Hey, Superboy!" Wally called, "Why don't you come over here and I can teach you some of what I know."

"No." Superboy replied. "I'm strong enough that it's a waste of time."

"Hold that thought." The speedster said, pulling several cans of soda out of the storage shed and then popping next to Superboy, "Here you go."

Superboy took the offered can and as soon as he'd opened it and taken a drink Wally was finished with his two. The speedster belched and, looking satisfied with himself placed the two cans in front of Superboy on the cement of the porch. "Stand on these."

"Why?" Superboy asked, puzzled by the request.

"I'll show you, if you do it." Wally said, looking smug.

Superboy looked down at the cans then stepped on them one at a time, they easily bore his weight and, congratulations, he was now four inches in the air. Yay.

"You're powerful, sure; but the point of martial arts isn't _just_ power… it's also the _when_, _where_, and _how_ to use it." the Speedster smiled and then tapped both cans in rapid succession causing them to crumple under Superboy's weight.

"See?" Wally asked, holding his hand out to help Superboy up.

Superboy had to admit the demonstration illustrated his point… "Fine."

• • • • • • • • • • •

[08 Jul 10 – 0645R]

Robin strode purposefully up the walk way to the West's residence, his excitement put a spring into his step that anyone could see. He had been right, they were going to be a team, officially, and with the support of the _Justice League_. How cool was that? Very cool.

He rang the doorbell and surprisingly when the door opened it was Mrs. West and not Wally… ever since he'd known Kid Flash, Robin could count on one hand the number of times the young speedster had let someone else get the door. It was almost a pathological need for him to get the door, or maybe just his friendly nature prompted him to meet whomever came calling.

"Oh, hello Robin. Come in, come in." She said with a smile, the kind moms give to their children's friends that they like. "Wally's out back doing his new 'training' routine. He should be in for breakfast any moment, so he'll be done in a second."

"Thanks, Mrs. West." Robin replied, stepping into the home. After making his way through the house and to the back door, he stuck his head out and yelled "Hey, Wally, for being the fastest guy around you sure know how to make everyone wait on you!"

The speedster and Superboy were immersed in martial arts training; simple stuff from the looks of it: blocking, balance, leverage, that sort of thing. As the two neared he heard the speedster finishing the lesson with "and so you got to be mindful of the ground when you take a hit; unless you have something as ridiculous like 'tactile telekinesis' and can reinforce your footing, blocking a hit like that will be just like driving a nail into a board."

"Hey Robin!" The speedster said, flashing his good-natured smile; instantly being replaced by an 'old-man' voice: "What brings you to the West Dojo, young man?"

Robin shook his head and gave his friend a flat look. "You know why I'm here."

"Hm…" The speedster muttered, stroking his chin as if it had a beard, then continued in a faux-croaking voice "While it is good that one so young should think highly of his elders, my advanced age does not bequeath mind reading along with wisdom."

"You're two years older than me… it's not that big a deal." Robin countered, trying to keep any irritation or exasperation from his voice. It would only encourage more banter.

"And look as good when five and ten you are, you will not!" The speedster rebutted, altering his voice a little to match Yoda.

"Just come on; we're going to be late." Robin said, "we're going to our new base."

• • • • • • • • • • •

[08 Jul 10 – 0758Q]

"Kid Flash: B03" the computerized voice announced on the zeta-tube's activation. The speedster was the last one through the zeta-tube, and there was some activity all around as Green Lantern and Superman moved large equipment around.

The team found themselves lining up in front of several members of the Justice League: Hawk-man, Red Tornado, Black Canary, The Flash, Aquaman, and Batman. Without preamble Batman strode forward along the line and began explaining.

"This cave was the original secret sanctuary of the Justice League; we're calling it into service again. Since you four are determined to stay together and 'fight the good fight', you'll do it on League terms: Red Tornado volunteered to live here and be your supervisor; Black Canary is in charge of training; I will deploy you on missions."

"Real missions?" Robin queried, though Joey had to wonder if this part was rehearsed.

"Yes, but covert." Batman replied, nodding once at The Flash.

Flash continued, "The League will still handle the obvious stuff, there's a reason we've got these targets painted on our chests."

Aquaman added in his portion to the lecture/introduction, "But Cadmus proves the bad-guys are getting smarter; Batman needs a team that can operate on the sly."

Joey had to note how this style psychologically presented a unified front by the League, having everyone adding in their own part created the impression that this was a united League undertaking… and minimized Batman's role as operation's director, keeping it from becoming merely Batman's Team.

"The five of you will be that team." Batman concluded, breaking Joey from his thoughts.

"Cool!" Robin responded, "Wait… five?"

"This is the Martian Manhunter's niece." Batman explained as two figures strode forward out of the periphery. "Miss Martian."

One was, of course, the Martian Manhunter. The other was shorter and curvy, and had long hair instead of the bald look. Where one had a dark blue hoodless, sleeveless cloak the other had a cape, a short skirt, gloves and a white shirt with a red X across the front.

Joey rushed over, intent on being the first to welcome the new team-member – get a closer look, say 'hello.' There wasn't anything more to it than that, well, that he'd have admitted.

"Hey, I'm Kid Flash; those are Aqualad, Robin, and Superboy." Joey began, not realizing that he was going a bit too fast for even the most outgoing of people, "Green looks good on you."

She jumped at that, almost as if she'd stepped on a tack or had been slapped, only to stare in shock as if he'd said "I've been going through your underwear, see!" – or something equally inappropriate.

That was _not_ the reaction he was going for, had he phrased it poorly? Joey tried again, "Um, wait, I mean you look good in green."

The frosty stare he received clearly said 'you're not welcome' but before she could do anything Robin stepped forward and clapped his hand on his friend's shoulder, "Wally West, everyone. He'll be here all night. Whether we want him to be, or not."

Joey turned to Robin and stared a second, "I'm going to go sit over there and try to put my foot in my mouth; it'll be both more productive and less embarrassing."

Flash piped up, "I just can't take the Kid anywhere, can I?"

Robin laughed and picked up where his friend had left off, doing the introductions at a proper pace this time.

•●••●••●•

[11 Jul 10 – 0836R]

Joey sat in the pew with his family, listening to the sermon, taking notes, and every so often looking over at Superboy. It was odd how the clone sat there expressionless and statue-still and Joey wondered what the clone was thinking.

The clone had the encyclopedic knowledge – including an overview of world's religions, but it would surprise Joey to no end if the theology and philosophy thereof were included in that store of knowledge.

The sermon was on Jesus's teachings in Matthew: "If thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." and on one portion of The Lord's Prayer: "forgive us our trespasses, even as we forgive those that trespass against us."

After Church the family went out to eat, a West family-tradition, and definitely the high-point of any speedster's day: meal-time!

• • • • • • • • • • •

[12 Jul 10 – 1413Q]

The baterang slipped through the air hitting the speedster before he could get up to speed, breaking his concentration enough to cause him to stumble headfirst into a patch of raspberries. Robin couldn't help but wince at the thought of the small thorns –he liked thorns and needles about as much as Superboy liked monkeys– but ran in bounding over them to hop on the speedster as the latter's momentum carried him through the patch.

The 'training' was rather akin to a glorified game of tag. Black Canary had set it up to see how well the team worked together and the results were rather mixed so far. M'gann had virtually singlehandedly won a victory for the team against Superboy by lifting him six inches off the ground and out of reach of anything; Kaulder had proved very difficult as he used the terrain to limit who could come after him and from where (land-based was _much_ easier for him than most others, due to the 3D nature of his Atlantian training); Robin was only a little less adept at using the terrain than Kaulder, though he made up for it by innovative use of traps and trees, turning the battlefield from mostly 2D to a limited 3D; M'gann was _hard_ to catch, her shape shifting and flight alone made it difficult; and then there was Joey… two minutes out of the gate and Robin was tackling him.

The bad thing about being thrown into other people's lives was keeping up on training and, moreover, keeping it from seeming too unnatural. Sometimes it was easy, like when one was left alone for hours at a time, other times it was neigh impossible insofar as the person's lives were concerned. The utter awkwardness he'd displayed as Joey Wheeler –especially right after regaining his memories– still made him wary of mis-stepping…

So, Joey was left with two choices: sucker-punch Robin in true Anything Goes style, or tone things down and allow himself to be caught. It wasn't as easy a choice as one might think; but one that had to be made.

The punch left Robin sucking wind as Joey started to speed up and escape the ambush set up by his fellow teammates… only to have an old, dead branch launch itself into his path.

M'gann stepped into visibility with a small smile on her green face as he finished tumbling and rolling. It was hard to tell what that smile meant though. She didn't really like him, for some unknown reason. Or maybe it would be better to say that she really didn't like him.

"Looks like you got me." Joey admitted as he picked himself off the ground and cautiously eyed the telepathic alien.

There was a worm in his mind seeking… secrets. '_No!_' Waves of terror and almost physical illness ripped into Joey, he was virtually convinced that he was a mental entity – how else would one explain inhabiting other's bodies? And if that was the case: then another's touch on his mind amounted to more than rape: it could destroy him.

'No, please!' He pleaded, 'You'll kill me!'

_I will not._ M'gann's voice sounded in his head, _but I must know…_

When she touched the speedster's mind more deeply she was astonished by the impact of the thoughts, it wasn't like on Mars, it was like stepping into a river that was running quicker than you were expecting; fortunately the mental realm wasn't a mirror of the physical, and she wasn't in any danger, though the most she caught was glimpses of many lives all doused with terror, terror at/because-of… _her?_

Her probe was abruptly cut off as Kaldur and Superboy burst into the clearing and M'gann greeted them, instinctively using her telepathy. _Oh, hello._

"Get out!" Superboy yelled angrily, even as Kaulder winced.

"What's going on?" Robin asked, dropping from a zipline to the opposite edge of the clearing.

_I don't know._ M'gann sent to him, and the rest of the team, _I was just…_

"Wait, wait." Robin said in as friendly a tone as he could manage, allowing Kaulder and Superboy to regain their mental footing.

"M'gann, your telepathy is considered an extreme invasion of privacy here." Kaulder tried to explain.

"Oh, but on Mars everyone can use telepathy." M'gann started.

"We're not on Mars though," Joey offered, having taken advantage of the break to run through several calming exercises, though it earned him a rather troubled look from the Martian.

"And Cadmus's little G-gnomes left a bad taste in our heads. It might be contagious…" Robin offered, almost shrugging as he slid in a verbal jab, "though K.F. is rather sensitive about it, too."

Joey realized that actions had consequences, and 'reactions' definitely fall into that category; indeed, sometimes it wasn't the action itself that solely determined the outcome, but the attitude of the person. The slip right there, the display of sheer terror… it was going to cost him something; he didn't know what, it might be as little as never really fitting in with the group... it might be as big as everyone finding out his secrets, which would be awkward.

Kaldur radioed Black Canary, signaling the end of the block of team-based exercises, and in twenty minutes they were lining up for individual reviews, in addition to an interactive-analysis that would have been called an After Action Review if they had been in the Army.

Everything went smoothly, Joey thought… he would be tempted to say 'too smoothly' but that might make his apprehensions about "not fitting in" into nothing less than self-fulfilling prophecies. It seemed that living other's lives was a balancing act. He tried to live a good life for his 'hosts' – the most difficult thing was relationships, not in the romantic-sense, but the general: who was the person he was in? and how could his actions create or destroy relationships? what relationships should he focus on and which should he break off – and, hopefully, leave them better off than he'd found them.

It was something to think about.

• • • • • • • • • • •

The small-group and pair evaluation/training wasn't too different, but they were designed to gauge teamwork on a smaller scale than overall, particularly simulating when the team was split up for some reason due to multiple mission objectives or injury. They were simple enough though: 5 choose 2 combinations for the pair-groupings and 5 choose 3 for the small-group combinations, both yielding 10 meant the sum-total of mission-exercises was 20. At 1 hour apiece they were slated for two full 10-hour days, the 13TH and 14TH, after which Joey assumed that Black Canary would devise specialized training regimens for each of the teammates.

"Hey, look at this." Robin said, drawing everyone's attention to the list, a rather simple affair, though it showed some thought had been placed into it so that none of them would have to keep going for two consecutive hours. "Me and Kaldur get to start things off!"

1) Robin, Aqualad  
2) Kid Flash, Miss Martian  
3) Robin, Superboy  
4) Aqualad, Miss Martian  
5) Kid Flash, Superboy  
6) Robin, Miss Martian  
7) Aqualad, Kid Flash  
8) Superboy, Miss Martian  
9) Robin, Kid Flash  
10) Aqualad, Superboy

"Looks like I ought to bring a book or four…" Joey said, glancing over the list and anticipating all the down-time.

Kaulder glanced at his teammate and crossed his arms, "I would not find it surprising if Black Canary has other tasks for those of us who are not being tested."

"You are correct." The unexpected voice of Red Tornado intoned, as he strode into the room, "There will be several familiarization-drills for you to participate in, particularly on use of the radio."

Robin snorted, "What's the big deal. You get on, you talk and it does the rest."

"There are situations where extended radio transmissions will reveal your location, or allow for the transmission itself to be decoded or located… this is especially an issue if you are forced to use non-League radios."Red Tornado explained, "This training is intended to ensure clear and concise communication… Batman's review of your last outing indicated it was a weak point."

"Why would we be forced to use non-League radios?" M'gann asked, "if they go out then I could telepathically link everyone…"

M'gann smiled at the team, but the glower of Superboy and the nervous look given off by the resident speedster were a little contagious, at least in preventing the acceptance of the offer. M'gann felt her smile waver and then fade… maybe it wasn't a good idea to bring it up, especially after the incident earlier.

"We will consider your offer." Kaulder suggested, diplomatically mollifying the Martian girl.

"It's probably best if we don't exclusively rely on it anyway; what would happen if you got knocked out or incapacitated?" Joey remarked, "But as to why we might have to use non-league equipment: Batman wants a covert team, that implies at least one level of misdirection should be in place should the worst happen… especially for the suicide mission."

"Dude!" Robin almost squeaked in surprise, "have you been reading conspiracy theories again? You know what they do to you."

Joey shrugged in reply before suddenly glaring at the Boy Wonder, "That's exactly what _they_ would say if they didn't want me to find out the truth."

It was rather a fun line, and Joey felt fairly happy with it… but it was missing something. Something that could equally be either random or a reference. 'Commenting about how I need a new copy of Catcher in the Rye is too easy… or there's Rorschach. Good old Ror.'

"Hrm, need beans. Superboy. Let's go." Joey said, beckoning to his new house-mate.

Robin blinked and then shook his head at his friend's odd sense of humor. "Wally… like I said before: the bat-cave is crowded enough already."

Joey gave a half-snort/half-chuckle ad walked into the zeta-tubes, indicating his destination and letting the transport-system do its job.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Stepping out of the zeta-tube's receiver, cleverly disguised as one of several old and broken down tool-sheds attached to a junk-yard's main office building, Joey waited for his teammate to catch up. There was a flash of lightning in the clouds, followed moments later by the rumble of thunder.

The storm would probably break soon, and Joey was hoping that he wouldn't be caught in the rain. It'd be rather hard to explain why a little red-headed girl was barging in like she lived there… or to Superboy, who was stepping out of the old shed.

"We should try to race the home before that storm hits." Joey said, starting to dash out… only to be stopped by Superboy's grip on his shoulder. "Um, yes?"

"You have a problem." Superboy said, "and you need to deal with it soon."

"Wha?" Joey was confused. Had the super-clone figured out his secret?

"You and Miss Martian." Superboy stated.

"I'm not following you." Joey said, genuinely confused. Sure, she didn't like him but there wasn't much he could do about that.

"Don't you remember the sermon on Sunday? If you remember that someone else has something against you, it's on you to try to fix it; you've offended her, somehow, and need to make it right… or this team will never work well." Superboy explained.

'Ah, crap! He's right.' Joey thought, more than a little shamed and embarrassed that a six-week old was pointing out a failing in applying his religion. It was the sort of irony that was slightly amusing being applied to someone else, and a little hard when that "someone else" was you.

"I don't know what I did, or anything to do to correct it." Joey admitted, it was hard to tell what possibly could have done it and frankly, some of her powers terrified him. He didn't want uninvited people rummaging through his mind any more than you'd want uninvited people rummaging through your home.

"You're clever, Wally, you'll figure something out." Superboy replied, dropping his hand from Joey's shoulder.

"Um, thanks." Joey replied, just as the storm-clouds broke.

It wasn't rain though, it was hail. Not big, perhaps twice the size of a grape seed to a pomegranate seed's size, but the noise that accompanied it was tremendous. Of course that was also the fault of the tin roofs in the junk-yard's buildings. It was odd that it would be hailing in the middle of July, but summer hailstorms weren't that uncommon… and that was discounting the possibility of a super-hero or super-villain influencing the weather.

"Wanna race home?" Joey asked, pulling out his goggles.

• • • • • • • • • • •

[14 Jul 10 – 0846Q]

The radio training was, surprisingly, based on rather current military field manuals; given to the team by Captain Atom. Apparently when Black Canary mentioned that she was going to do radio operations training the Captain had volunteered to supply the resources, which were three field manuals, a go/no-go test sheet, a small laminated reference-card, and a set of walkie talkies.

He'd even managed to talk Black Canary into letting him run the testing in the afternoon, claiming that he needed the practice anyway. Though that was debatable, he wasn't exactly one of the rank-and-file boys anymore.

Joey was content to munch on a subway sandwich as he read the manual, at a nice lazy, normal pace. He was surprised by his name, well super-hero alias, being called out. Looking around, he realized that the Boy Wonder and Aqualad were entering the room and while they were looking rather ragged they were also rather silent… odd, that.

Joey mentally shrugged and bounded toward the cave's exit, wolfing the rest of the sandwich down before he'd taken the third step… and found Black Canary and Red Tornado standing right there.

"Ok, I'm here; what's up?" Joey inquired.

"Hold your horses, we'll wait for your partner to get out here before we explain the goal." Black Canary replied.

Several moments later the Martian girl stepped out of the mountain headquarters and she looked as enthusiastic as a cat on a porch in the middle of a rainstorm.

"Now that everyone's here I'll give you the scenario: this little child is the crown prince of Bogministan," she held up a doll wrapped in a blanket, "and this is Mr. Ang, Warrior of Wind, who has abducted the young prince." she nodded at Red Tornado, handing him the 'child.'

Red Tornado took the doll and flew off, soaring above the forest that lay that direction… a speedster would have to be careful in that.

"Your mission is to safely retrieve the baby," Black Canary said, snapping Joey's attention back to the mission's specification, " capturing Mr. Ang is a secondary but noncritical requirement."

"These are your radios, for this mission they've been locked on a separate, isolated channel; they're also recording the audio for analysis and playback." She explained as she handed the two the radios, "They also have an emergency-call button, that red one covered by the hard plastic, which will terminate the exercise and call me: that is to only be used in an emergency, got it?"

Joey nodded once, snapping the radio onto his belt while M'gann made a pouch appear out of nowhere, dropped it in, and resealed it.

"That's neat, you don't have to worry about stuff falling out of your pockets." Joey said, pointing to the 'pocket.'

M'gann looked up, wondering what he was talking about for a split-second before realizing it was the clothes he was talking about. That was odd, considering that he knew she wasn't a green Martian… something about Kid Flash didn't add up. No, that wasn't it, _nothing_ about him added up.

"You have one hour starting… now." Black canary announced, then looking at M'gann and said, "Oh, and no bio-ship."

M'gann looked at Joey, who looked back. It was an awkward silence.

"Well, how do we want to do this? I can't run well through that forest." Joey said, looking toward where Red Tornado had gone. "And what bio-ship?"

"It doesn't matter if we can't use it, does it?" M'gann said, brushing the speedster off. She wrinkled her brow in slight concentration, "I can't sense him, mentally… I mean."

"Red Tornado's a robot; does your telepathy work on machines?" Joey asked, wondering exactly what the limits on her powers were.

"No, only living things." M'gann admitted aloud, though she was seriously unnerved by the speedster's mismatch of knowledge and ignorance.

"Well… How about flying to catch up with him. You can go on ahead of me while I try to clear that forest, or pull me along with your telekinetics… I'm not sure how much of a strain that'd be…" Joey said, suggesting several possibilities.

Joey cut himself off as he found himself floating several inches off the ground. "Gah!"

"Not too much of a strain, for a while at least." M'gann said as she flew the two of them through the air.

Joey pulled his goggles over his eyes and cycled through the functions, until he keyed in both zoom and thermal. He was still getting used to them. Luckily they were sensitive enough to detect the trail of air that the android had left, or maybe it'd been designed to require both of them to help each other out, "Wait… he went right after he left our sight."

Joey pointed off to the side but the alien girl didn't turn that way, instead they drifted down into a clearing in the woods. It wasn't large, but it was enough of one to keep any large branches out of the speedster's reach; though one dead limb threatened to snag him as he descended and, reaching out, he preemptively broke it.

_Now then, where were we?_ M'gann's voice echoed in his head, _Right. I need to know how much you know about me… and how you know it._

"Wait, no!" Joey tried to protest, but it was already too late; there was an alien presence in his mind… near-terror washed over him at the violation and he struggled mid-air to get away… only succeeding in spinning himself end-over-end like some space-movie.

'Hey, this isn't funny!' Joey thought, reaching to the belt for the radio there… only to find it floating, motionless two feet from his hand. Further than even the twig in his hand would reach.

_You cannot escape and no one will be able to intervene,_ M'gann's voice resounded in his head, _so you should just stop struggling._

Joey felt the mental-tendrils worm deeper into his brain. He swung his stick toward her but obviously couldn't reach. 'Maybe an _Amaguriken_…'

Nothing significant happened, so he tried it faster, and _faster_. That resulting in a small rumble ringing in the small clearing as it exceeded the speed of sound repeatedly and its tip became glowing hot, threatening to burst into flame.

_You're just wasting energy, even if you can break the sound-barrier it won't do anything for you._ The Martian cut off the conversation and caught the stick midair as it shot forth from his hand. _See?_

Joey shut his eyes, gritted his teeth and did the only thing he could, reciting a small and catchy tune from his childhood over and over again. It might not be effective at all, but it was better than doing nothing and letting his mind be raped. 'Jesus loves me, this I know…'

_Oh, you are stubborn, aren't you?_

'For the bible tells me so.' Joey thought, rotating his forearm as fast as he could, maybe he could get it hot enough to start a fire on his suit and the pain would drive the alien presence out of his head… hopefully.

But something unexpected happened, instead of the suit heating and catching fire, a small whirlwind formed and Joey stopped in surprise. The artificial dirt devil shot forward, toward M'gann and for a moment her mental grip on him lessened as she dove out of the way.

Joey fell to the ground, landing on his back, and that knocked the wind out of him. He forced himself to his feet and after two forced breaths – spent looking for that radio, it seemed to have disappeared, likely covered in detritus thrown up by the struggle – and he was out of time, so he _ran_. It didn't matter where, he just needed to get away. He needed to get away and stay away… so he wove his way through the trees trying to outrun an alien.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Miss Martian recovered from her shock just moments too late to regain her grip on the speedster. She couldn't pierce his mind, racing as it was, it would be like trying to catch a bullet with your hands… but she could feel its location.

She took to the air, soaring over the tops of the trees that the speedster had to go around. They slowed him down significantly, but even so his forward progress was impressive… he was heading nearly sixty degrees away from the headquarters, but if he could hit open ground he could return there and reveal her secret to everyone… though she hadn't sensed anything like malice while she was in his mind, she had seen things that were truly puzzling… and the sheer terror of his reaction on entering his mind was unnatural to anyone.

As she raced towards the edge of the forest, towards where she anticipated Kid Flash to exit, she remembered the reaction that the others on the team had given just the other day: it was true, that she _wasn't_ on Mars anymore… the beginnings of doubt over the justification of her actions began to creep in.

It was a few minutes before she reached the forest's edge, just seconds before the speedster was to make his exit. Looking down as she was she could see that the forest ended rather abruptly, leaving less than a half-dozen yards before the ground came to an even more abrupt end.

M'gann didn't even have the time to react as Kid Flash burst out into the clear land… only to run off the edge of the cliff to plummet to the sea below.

* * *

Author's Note: Yeah, I'm almost ashamed about how close to literal this 'cliffhanger' is… but I like puns.

Robin: "Here, I thought you might need this."  
*Robin throws a small metallic object in Joey's direction.*  
Joey: "Wait… what?"  
Robin: "It's a mindrape whistle!"  
Joey: "…you're a dick."  
Robin: "Dick Grayson!"


	5. Chapter 5

Inertia; it's a horrible thing for a speedster, proving to be the angry big brother that punishes those who abuse poor little Physics, like all speedsters tended to do… and today he had his revenge on the one currently known as Kid Flash.

Joey had been increasing speed as the forest had thinned, as he didn't have to dodge nearly so sharply, but then there was a sudden break where there were no trees for him to dodge and he realized that he wouldn't be able to stop in time or even change the direction to avoid the cliff.

And so he found himself running off a cliff like some re-enactment of a Road Runner cartoon. It was ridiculous, kind of surreal, and terrifying as the deep blue sea lunged up at him.

Fun fact: surface tension can make falling onto water from a height somewhat similar to diving into concrete.

Joey didn't know if the salt in the water, or the wave motion would negate that… and he didn't particularly want to find out right now, so he searched his suit for anything he could throw down, hopefully breaking the surface tension so he didn't break his legs, or neck, when he made his splashdown.

He found nothing and so let fly a prayer as the water met him; there wasn't any of the pain of breaking bones he'd been anticipating, and he felt the Jusenkyo curse transforming his body… only to be pulled out of the water by Miss Martian's telekinetic powers.

It was hard to say who was more surprised, the dripping-wet redheaded girl wearing the Kid Flash costume, or the Martian who was holding her aloft as she herself hovered above the waves.

_Who/what are you?_ M'gann's thoughts echoed in his mind, but there was none of the feeling of her delving deeper… either she was surprised into caution, or she was giving him a chance to explain himself.

"I, well… I'm not sure what I am." Joey said aloud, mentally thinking about how to answer the _who_ portion of the question, 'In one sense I really am Wally West, in another I'm a different person…'

_What do you mean?_ M'gann questioned, earning a surprised jump from the dimension-traveler.

_Ah, you're reading my thoughts._ Joey projected back, the telepathic communication both new and unfamiliar to his thinking, _Well, I'm kind of a dimensional-traveler who gets to live other people's lives for a time. I was trying to keep it a secret, so when I did leave Wally's life would be normal, more or less… why are you doing this to me anyway?_

_I-I thought you knew my secret._ M'gann admitted, which raised questions in the other's mind. The lapse in guarding her own thoughts made M'gann want to kick herself.

_Well, I don't really care about discovering your secret._ Joey sent back with a mental chuckle, _Some secrets are better left alone, don't you think? Could I ask that you don't tell the others about this,_ Joey indicated the now-female body he wore, the being not-Wally, and the fight itself, _All this is really kinda embarrassing… besides that, if you tell the others you won't be able to keep secret the existence of your own secret._

M'gann mentally rocked back at that. It wasn't extortion, or even a threat, just a statement of truth. She couldn't really reveal this without raising questions which would lead to her own secret. _Fine; we have a deal. You keep my secret and I'll keep yours…_

_Fair enough._ Joey thought back, accepting the offer. It wasn't ideal but it really was the best he could hope for… and, assuming she didn't renege, should keep his mind from being violated. 'Congratulations, you've discovered Mutually Assured Destruction…' he thought wryly to himself, as if it were a "quick" game of civilization.

_Though I do want to know how you shifted your shape._ M'gann projected.

"Well, the short version is that it's an ancient Chinese curse." Joey said aloud, mentally projecting the incident of falling into the cursed pool. "Why do you ask?"

_Well, because it's harder for me to change genders than… well, I just don't have the skill for it yet._

"Ah, I see." Joey said, nodding at the revelation. That was an interesting bit of information; it was fairly useless at this point, but still interesting. "Well, we ought to get back to the base, or somewhere I can get hot water."

M'gann returned a questioning look.

"It suppresses the curse, returning me back to a male." Joey explained.

• • • • • • • • • • •

After retrieving hot water from the town – and changing back into Kid Flash – Joey raced along the edge of the forest, trying to get to the location that Red Tornado had gone, though he wasn't entirely sure that where he thought it was matched where it had been. If pressed, he'd have said he was about 60% sure, but they still had a mission and a time-limit which was quickly running out.

M'gann was overhead making a visual check as she ran an aerial search pattern but turning up nothing, so far.

_Wait! I see something._ M'gann's voice echoed in his head – he'd been reluctant to allow it but without the radio there had been little in the way of options for ranged communications – she continued: _yes, he's up ahead and to your left._

Joey altered course and slowed down, he didn't want to run into a tree, or off a cliff… again.

_How's this heading? And distance?_ He queried the Martian, trying to think up a plan. They were very late, probably only had minutes to spare. _Do you want to try for the 'rescue' or me? If one of us can surprise him, and rescue the 'baby' then the other could run interference to let the rescuer escape. How's that sound?_

_You're going the right way, and he's about three-hundred yards from you now._ M'gann replied, _I'm not sure if that's a good idea… but you'll get to him before I can think of something else._

She was right; two seconds later he burst into a clearing. As he sped through it, taking only a fraction of a second, he noticed that Red Tornado was indeed holding the 'baby' and raising his hand to summon a tornado.

At the speed Joey was traveling it would be a close call as to whether or not the tornado would intercept him… Joey would have liked to have used his new trick to generate his own and see what colliding them together would do, it would be interesting, but he wasn't coordinated enough to do that while running, so he made do with planning a flyby, well runby, with a punch as he passed.

That wasn't quite what happened though, as the twister met the speedster and drew his feet off the ground – but still traveling at fifty or sixty miles an hour, by his estimation. It was a lot of speed and lifting him off the ground only turned him into a projectile, a human cannonball still flying at the crimson robot.

The two met shoulder to face, Red Tornado moving out of the way enough to avoid a literal head-to-head collision, and that distraction was enough to allow Miss Martian to pluck the doll from the resulting tangle of super-heros and fly off towards the base.

Joey was on his feet an instant before Red Tornado, who was wasting no time in launching himself airborne to retrieve the 'child' so Joey threw himself into his role of executing the delaying tactic: jumping onto the robot and clutching for dear-life, hoping to slow it down.

The air-distortions still formed around Red Tornado's lower half and he rose into the air like the teenaged hero clutching him was little more than a backpack.

"I suggest that you desist; I do not plan on holding back." Red Tornado said as he flew in an easy logarithmic arc and steadily increasing speed.

Joey's only response was to grab on tightly, swinging his legs around the metal torso and locking his feet together, a few minor adjustments and he put his arm around the other's neck to stabilize his position… and that freed one hand.

A few moments later Joey was generating his own miniature-tornado. When that mini-twister made contact with the tornado enfolding the robot's legs there was a distinct showdown along with a loss of altitude.

"An interesting tactic, if useless." Red Tornado commented as he put more power into his flight and Joey almost lost his grip.

"Nah, just stealing the wind from your sails." Joey quipped back as he poured more speed into his arm, confident that it was hindering the speed of the robot.

• • • • • • • • • • •

'Stupid! M'gann, just stupid!' thought M'gann, flying through the air as fast as she could. The revelation of Kid Flash not being Kid Flash was a strange twist, absolutely unexpected. She didn't like the idea of someone knowing her secret, but the boy's argument made sense: once people knew a secret existed it was far easier to discover what it was… and to be honest she felt more than a little threatened that he had gotten it from her own mind in an unguarded moment.

'Then there's the rest of the team…' she thought, slowing down slightly. Was it really such a bad thing to even merely _talk_ to the minds of others? 'An "invasion of privacy" Kaulder said.'

She flew on, her mind bubbling with turmoil. It was so different, so… _alien_. She could see how digging through not-Wally's mind searching for _how_ he knew her secret might be considered invading his privacy – but on Mars such a 'privacy' was paranoia, the signal of the worst sort of mental health, a sort of berserk insanity that fed itself from their own perceived reality – the _only_ thing that raised doubts was his transformation from male into female, it was incredible and something no regular human could do, and it seemed to support his wild story… but such stories could also be the insanity warping things to explain itself away: it is never the one who sometimes doubts their own sanity who is insane, but the one who is convinced that they are utterly sane.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Red Tornado analyzed the speedster's effect on his airspeed: in addition to the weight slowing him, there was a 14.6% reduction to the expected speed for the given power. Not entirely ineffectual a strategy, given that reduction altered projected interception-time to three seconds after the Martian completed the mission. Conclusion: alternate strategy needed.

The essential parameters for the alternate strategy – (1) non-lethality, (2) rapidity-of-execution – ruled out both a serious fight and a protracted one. Merely attempting to remove Kid Flash's grip would devolve into a grappling fight, and likely to become protracted. However, with correct timing the loosening of the grip would work.

The crimson robot dove toward the trees, slowing – so the upcoming maneuver would be unlikely to break bones – and at the last moment prying one of the speedster's hands loose as he inverted himself and, twisting in midair, skimmed a tree, and literally scraping the speedster off.

Finally free of Kid Flash's hold, he arced into the air, accelerating to his top speed, already planning to engage Miss Martian.

Some time later Joey exited the forest and made his way to the clearing just outside the mountain headquarters that was being used as the briefing/debriefing area & exercise's starting-point.

"You're late." Black Canary stated without preamble and with what Joey thought was a harsh, possibly disappointed gaze, "get inside and we'll review this training later."

• • • • • • • • • • •

Several hours and a lunch-break later, Joey found himself and Superboy readying for their own evaluation exercise. Again Black Canary was there, but instead of Red Tornado waiting at her side it was the Green Lantern. He stood with a confident, almost arrogant stance, Hal Jordan: Primary Green Lantern of Sector 2814.

"For this exercise the Green Lantern," Black Canary indicated the black and green clad figure standing next to her, "will be assisting. The scenario is a crashed alien spacecraft; you have one hour to handle the situation starting… now."

"Wait what other information do we have? Are there survivors? Are they friendlies? Hostiles? Is there anything that's been detected in space?" Joey asked, a little unbalanced by the complete lack of information.

Black Canary smiled and shrugged as she replied, "Who knows?"

"Not all missions have detailed information to go on." Hal informed them.

It seemed that he might continue on, but it was Black Canary who explained, "Even though Batman will be deploying you on well-defined missions, which will have such pertinent information in the briefing, doesn't mean that this team shouldn't be trained to deal with the unexpected where there isn't any information… after all, most of you are expected to join the League in the future."

Superboy nodded, "Then let's go."

Hal nodded once and then, bathed in green light from his ring, took flight in an arcing path into the forest; as he reached the apex a green construct of an alien ship formed around him and crashed to the Earth.

The clone and speedster exchanged a glance before starting off in that direction. Joey accelerating to a good run and Superboy making distance-eating leaps through the air. When the two neared the impact-site they saw the needle-like 'spacecraft' had a gaping hole in its fuselage where one of the wings had torn away and how it spit sparks everywhere was strangely reminiscent of defective sparklers.

"I'll look inside." Superboy said a second before he stuck his in the hull-breach; what he saw was an amazingly intricate control system – it was almost obvious that Hal Jordan had experience with both alien architecture and space-/air-craft – but no sign of a pilot or any other survivor, nor even the Green Lantern himself.

As they looked around the 'ship', trying to puzzle out what they were to do next, a pod that looked like two giant footballs held parallel and squeezed together dropped off of one of the wings. Almost before it hit the ground it started unfolding and extending until it stood eight feet tall and bristled with intimidating looking weapons.

"What did you do?" Joey asked, throwing a bit of playful accusation in his voice and glancing to the side to see if there was any reaction.

Superboy didn't react, at least not to the teasing, he certainly didn't hesatate before leaping into action and punching the robot-construct with his considerable strength, pushing it back a foot before it dug its heels, regained its balance, and a third arm swung out of its chest, backhanding the Kryptonian ten feet to the side.

Seeing an opening the speedster ran near the robot, catching its arm and continuing to push it on the course it was already traveling. The result was mixed: on the one hand the robot was unbalanced, which was good, on the other hand the robot grabbed at the speedster's arm, throwing off his stride and causing the speedster to stumble and fall at high-speed, knocking his breath out.

Superboy and Joey simultaneously tried to regain their balance before the robot did, Joey was at a disadvantage regaining his breath, but in the end Superboy was the quicker to re-enter the fray. He didn't hold anything back from his punches as he repeatedly hit the robot.

The robot didn't go flying, but it did stumble backward under the onslaught. Superboy pressed the advantage with a low-kick to the knee Joey had shown him earlier. The backlash caused it to collide with one of the 'ship's' protrusions and it tripped backwards making contact with the bulge it had been nested in while in its pod-form. There was a huge flash and the robot fell to the ground inert.

Superboy and Joey looked around the ship more but found nothing more… it was unnerving and actually quite stressful – just like being in a war-zone and knowing that something was going to happen… only for nothing to happen – but eventually their time ran out and they had to return to Black Canary.

They got there just in time to see the Green Lantern fly off, he'd been talking to Black Canary, but Joey had no idea what they had been talking about… he'd have to remember to ask Superboy about it later.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Aqualad emerged from the old, beat-up van onto the parking-lot, Kid Flash trailing behind him; most of the today's exercises had been near the water, and he suspected that was an acknowledgment or accommodation for his water-based powers and abilities… it made sense that the League would want to get a measure of the Team's members "in their element", so to speak… it also made sense to test them outside their element and he fully expected that.

This was the last training exercise for the day for him and he was glad for it. While it hadn't been utterly enervating like his power-swimming training in Atlantis – which would be the equivalent of running with a parachute dragging behind for surface-dwellers – it was still enough that he felt a little tired.

"The exercise starts now." Red Tornado, who had driven them there, informed them.

Aqualad nodded once and strode to the water's edge before jumping in; it was all according to plan. This time their 'opponent' was none other than Wonder Woman, one of the League's powerhouses just behind Superman and Martian Manhunter. The briefing was… brief, but had been to the point – the exercise's scenario was to retrieve a DVD from a warehouse in the nearby city of Happy Harbor, while avoiding the security and evading or neutralizing the patrolling guard: Wonder Woman.

Kid Flash had offered the two pronged approach, with each of them going different routes; it was sensible given that there was one guard and she couldn't be in two places at once… it _was_ somewhat hampered by the fact that Kid Flash had lost his communicator earlier in the day; ultimately though, that was merely a minor incontinence, as they didn't _need_ two-way communication and he would signal when he had exited the building by using his water-bearers to create a waterspout signaling to Kid Flash that he could disengage.

Now… now all he had to do was complete the exercise.

• • • • • • • • • • •

At that moment Joey was being the distraction… though he was starting to question his route of 'pick a fight with someone super-powers'… really, not the smartest thing he'd done. He dodged a punch from the Amazon and countered by trying to pull her into a judo throw.

Here's a quick battle-tip: don't throw someone who can fly, unless it's into a wall… unfortunately Joey didn't know that she _could_ fly and earned himself a surprise kick to the face.

Wonder Woman followed up with a flying punch, but Joey countered with an uppercut that left the amazonian princess stunned in more ways than one.

"That move…" Wonder woman looked at the boy intently; that was a basic Amazonian martial art move… which meant he _shouldn't_ know it; more accurately: _he_ shouldn't know it.

Joey was caught flat-footed, absolutely bewildered at the sudden break in the fight caused by his opponent's bemusement. "What move?"

Wonder Woman shook her head, it could have been an honest coincidence, but the form was perfect… though his stance had changed into something else altogether. Still, she would be on the lookout for another Amazonian move like that, and if found she'd discover its origin.

Joey watched as Wonder Woman touched down and dropped into a defensive stance. Apparently she was willing to play the defensive game here, even though it meant leaving the rest of the warehouse open to Aqualad's intrusion Joey… if he could hold her attention like this for a while then the exercise was already won.

• • • • • • • • • • •

He had to act quickly because he knew that Kid flash couldn't last long against Wonder Woman, and if he were betting on the time it would take her he would have put it at "under 2-minutes" – actually, considering that she was on the same level as Superman he'd be surprised if his friend lasted a full minute in a serious fight… not that he'd rate himself as doing much better – K.F. had super-speed and could possibly run a defensive game, whereas his own strength and toughness would be worn down quickly… but this wasn't a full-out fight, only a training exercise.

In any case, those thoughts flashed through his mind for only an instant before Aqualad launched himself out of the water after having disabled the electricity of the building – filling the circuit-box with water had the intended effect, and though he didn't know it, he was lucky that the League had put in robust backups, as that was the only thing that prevented his methods from starting a fire.

Entering the facility was easy, forcing his water bearers to assume sword-forms after letting the water under the door and an application of super-strength cut through the hinges.

Aqualad made his way quickly to the office; t was rather obvious that's where the DVD was… simply because the warehouse was empty.

• • • • • • • • • • •

After a few minutes of observing the young speedster, Wonder Woman had about decided that it must have been just a fluke when he struck with a kick/punch combo that definitely belonged in a Amazonian kata.

"There! Where did you learn that?" Wonder Woman asked as she countered it in the traditional way, only to be surprised by a barrage of super-speed punches.

"What? I don't know what you're talking about." Joey replied as he finished an _Amaguriken_… did he mess up and show off too much here? The thought intruded enough to break his rhythm though.

Wonder Woman used the break in the boy's rhythm to disengage, getting distance and time to unloose her lasso. In the next instant the golden lasso was encircling the boy… he would be telling her where he'd learned those moves.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Robin and Joey walked into the original clearing together, this time Black Canary was accompanied by the Green Arrow and a large doll. The Green Arrow, true to form, was flirting with the team's training mentor, while the doll was… creepy. It had the sort of demented smile you'd see on kids posing for pizza commercials, or perhaps deranged psychopaths, dead-looking eyes that nevertheless seemed to follow your every move.

"Your mission is to investigate a kidnaping." Black Canary explained.

"Let me guess, some big robin-hood type kidnaped a little girl?" Joey asked dryly.

"No; the girl, Mary Dahl, has kidnaped her Cupid-&-Romeo-of-Love." Black Canary replied, seeming to take pleasure in the surprised looks Joey and Green Arrow both gave her.

"Hey, Dinah, that's not funny…" Green Arrow started to protest, much to Black Canary's not-quite-muffled amusement.

"I didn't write this script," Black Canary responded, struggling to maintain her composure, as she continued with: "Batman gave it to me personally."

"See Wally, he does have a sense of humor." Robin whispered to Joey, the smirk evident on his voice, before taking a drink from his canteen.

"I'm not buying it…" Joey returned shaking his head slowly, "he probably used a story-generator on that fancy computer of his."

Robin gave Joey an incredulous look over the canteen as Joey continued: "The Batman does _not_ laugh; his sense of humor is that of Jim Cary telling Mike Meyers's jokes in Jerry Seinfeld's style and with Ben Stein's delivery."

Robin promptly choked on his water, the commotion drawing Black Canary and Green Arrow out of their – arguing? Flirting? Whatever it was. After ensuring that the boy wonder was well, the group dissolved into their roles for the exercise.

"What's going on here?" Green Arrow asked, looking at the still-sputtering boy wonder.

"K.F.…" Robin coughed out, "made me laugh."

"Trying to kill your friend?" Black Canary asked, joining in on the conversation.

Joey wasn't going to say anything but the joke was right there,"I've been told I have a killer sense of humor."

"Just get going, you're wasting time." She replied, shaking her head at the terrible wordplay… the kid was definitely related to the Flash.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Green Arrow was not particularly liking his position… of course he was used to being the hero, not the hostage. So he was relieved when the two heros came into view – which was lucky, considering he was in a log cabin – the Boy-Wonder was obviously in the lead, but only because he was using the trees to help him move rather than being hindered like Kid Flash.

Green Arrow watched with a mixture of fascination and horror as the 'doll' triggered the explosives that brought the trees down around the cabin: that was a bit… excessive. Robin lighted down on the trees the moment they settled, an amazing show of acrobatic timing, while his speedster friend had to climb over it.

Green Arrow shook his head, if he'd known that he'd have ended up just playing Mr. MacGuffin he wouldn't have been so enthusiastic about helping out today… but he'd honestly been hoping that Roy would have changed his mind and joined the team. He shrugged mentally and settled down to watch the boy wonder and the speedster battle… a doll.

He laughed to himself softly; maybe Batman did have a sense of humor.

• • • • • • • • • • •

Robin was only slightly surprised at the explosions; Batman _had_ said something that indicated some of these exercises were tailored to the participants and both he and Wally were fast and agile: he with his acrobatics and Wally with his gymnastics.

He leapt into action, using a baterang trailing a rope on the cabin itself to draw himself forward, sure that his buddy was right behind him. Fortunately K.F. could take care of tying up the 'kidnapper' while he freed Green Arrow.

The window crashed as he swung through it, and Robin was inside. There was a quick motion on the other end of the room and Robin instinctually jumped in an unnecessary evasion as he quickly realized it was Green Arrow who had made the movement.

"Come on, we're getting you out of here!" Robin ran to Green Arrow and, as soon as he'd unlocked the shackles pulled him out of the cabin on his zip-line.

When he'd made it to the ground he was surprised to see K.F. literally tied up… his bout with the 'doll' obviously hadn't gone too well.

That was when the "rope" tying Kid Flash jumped at them and morphed into a net… this was oddly familiar, Robin thought as he narrowly jumped out of the way.

As the 'net' reformed into a spring that launched itself he remembered: plastic man. The onetime villain had turned over a new leaf to become a super-hero, he'd even worked with Batman a few times, and had just applied to become a member of the League.

Robin grunted as he realized that this was Batman testing and pushing both him and Plastic Man… it was like him to try to solve multiple problems at a time, just like this training today served multiple purposes.

• • • • • • • • • • •

"Is there anything else?" Batman asked, surveying the others in the meeting, a good showing of the Justice League but not all its members: Black Canary, Superman, himself, the rest of the Team's mentors, and the rest of the heroes that had a hand in the day's training exercises.

"Yeah." Green Arrow said, scratching the back of his head, "What was the deal with that doll thing?"

"You haven't been reading my reports." Batman observed dryly.

"What?" Green Arrow was taken aback, partially because of the conclusion, but partly because he hadn't been reading Batman's incident reports.

"Mary Dhal," Martian Manhunter explained, "former star of the television show _Baby Doll_, recently an inmate of Arkham, put away by our colleague after kidnaping, and nearly murdering her former co-stars."

"…wait." Green Arrow replied, "so, you've really got a killer midget in your rogues gallery?"

"They prefer 'little people'" Batman replied dryly.

"You know," Green Arrow beamed, "that officially revokes your right to make fun of my villains."

Batman responded with two words, delivered in Ben Stein's style,"Rainbow Archer."

Green Arrow winced and replied, "Touche."– then shook his head and repeated it.

"Anything serious?" Batman asked, looking around the room.

Wonder Woman hesitated a moment before asking "Has anyone heard of a group of Amazons in China?"

* * *

Author's Notes: First off, I'm sorry for making everyone wait so long. This chapter was particularly hard because I'm not too good at 'filler' parts, but to just jump into all the action would ruin the pacing of the story. [Not to mention that it's kinda silly to think that there wasn't some intense training, rather than just throwing everyone together.]

{Comments edited for space.}

**Guest:** _My only real gripe with the whole situation is that, well, you might be making it a little too hard on Joey here. I can't see anybody being suspicious of his reactions, because the whole going-into-your-mind thing pretty much IS incredibly bad (understatement.) There's not really any way to overreact to that, which everybody else seems to be saying that Kid Flash is doing._

**Well, the problem is that she didn't forcibly enter [and dig-into] anyone else's mind, just the "thought-broadcast" and Joey didn't volunteer the information that she had been digging around – that means that the others, not being psychic, don't really grasp [the entirety of] what happened.**

**Najrala:** _I rather like this sequel better, though it's oddly jarring to find references to things that it seems you never got around to posting. So it was Slayers, Sliders, Ranma, then Yugioh? I'm guessing if he took Ranma's body. I do hope at some point (perhaps after you finish this story?) you choose to go back and rewrite the Ranma section that was lost. _

_I like how you set up Megan's misunderstanding. I do hope there is some sort of consequence for this, though. I'm looking forward to Robin figuring out something – it kind of looks like he's got some minor suspicion already._

_Anyway, that's all pretty much just my musings. I saw your review count was ridiculously low for this quality of a story, so...yeah. So anyway, good luck (particularly with the survival of your computer-that always seems to kill some of the authors I follow…) and see you[r] stories) later._

**Long one there; but good. Yes, the order is Slayers, Sliders, Ranma, then Yu-gi-oh; though there may be more in there that's the minimum. (You're right about the Ranma ½ Arc being Ranma.) I actually rather liked the Megan-misunderstanding thing, too. (It was one of those things that just clicked into the story.) Robin is indeed getting slightly suspicious, Batman moreso, as you can see; though Wonder Woman's trip to China might end up revealing it sooner. Thank you very much for the review-count comment; good to know some think I write quality stuff. Seeing how it was a computer-fault that killed the disk w/ the Ranma Arc on it (I had it mostly done) statistics say this data should be good… perhaps until I can afford to retrieve it someday.**


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